With a single input cable the monitor does scaling for almost any resolution you can imagine up to the 1920 x 1200 single-cable max. If you've ever run a fixed frequency monitor on Windows 3.1 then you know how nice it is to see all the bootup messages and so on.

That's as far as I tried with a V10.

V12, failed at 3840 x 2400 @ 12.7 hz on a single cable ... didn't exactly fail but it was about as stable as my friend's now-deceased psychologist mom. The slightest wrong move and kerblooey, bouncing off the walls.

That should be possible tho. If so, it would mean you could normally run at 1920 x 1200 then kick down to 3840 x 2400 for the occasional graphics use. That could be a nice setup if someone can conquer the vfo problems.

V12 with DCD, using two DVI cables and the stock 2@1920x1200_50 vfo that comes with Irix produces a 3840 x 1200 stripe across the niddle of the monitor. Interesting. The manual does not say that's possible. Maybe they never tried.

With a single V12 and dcd and custom vfo of 2 @ 1920 x 2400 24 hz refresh, the monitor runs at full res. The refresh rate is not a problem. The cursor is so small you can't zoom around with the mouse anyhow. Move too fast and the damned thing disappears Movies are also fine with one exception (and this is a clue to how the dcd works) - if you display the movie across the center line of the screen, you can see where the two outputs from the dcd alternate. This is not apparent at all in any other operation and I'd bet that if you spread a movie over two monitors you wouldn't be aware of it because the bezels would mask that action. It's just that with the two sections directly adjacent, with motion across the full screen you can see the alternating refreshes.

Desktop icons and most fonts are no problem, 4Dwm deals with them fine. It took me five minutes to get the desktop usable. Eat your heart out, Windows. Dream your little dreams of world domination, Loonix Individual applications need some .Xdefault tweaking. Either that or buy a magnifying glass

Still very early in the process but :

Photographs look very good. Models in Pro/E look much better. (I'd assume in any other modelling application as well.) It's a very nice display. The refresh rate is nothing to be concerned about. Even at 24 hz it's fine for 98% of anything I can imagine doing.

Is it worth it ? If this is a hobby and you have a chance to grab a T221, a DCD and a V12 for cheap, then may be. If you aren't serious about graphics tho, it's most likely not worth the trouble. Think SW1600 fonts divided by two. The color is better, the sharpness is about the same (if your eyes are as bad as mine, anyhow), the font size is even worse and it's even more hassle to get all the stuff you need to run it.

Not that the Tezro/T221 combination doesn't have it's share of problems. SGI never made public mention of how to configure the Tezro's V12-based graphics to work with the T221, and to my knowledge never publicly provided any of the microcode/.vfo files needed to drive the higher resolutions the T221 is capable of.

Up until this point that lack of 3840x2400 display formats has been a show-stopper for the Tezro (and other V12-equipped systems). That issue is further complicated because a DCD is needed to drive the T221 at 3840x2400, and SGI hasn't provided any documentation on how to compile microcode/vfo files for DCD-equipped VPro Graphics. There's not a single mention of creating dual-channel formats in the Video Format Compiler manual or TechPubs. I'm fairly certain the xFree86 modelines SGI provided for the Onyx4 (linked above) were used to create the 2@3840x2400_24 format hamei mentioned in his post. Since both are based on the same modeline(s), the V12/DCD combination should present a 3840x2400_24 display format reasonably similar to that used by the Onyx4.

With the no available display format problem resolved for the V12, the issue of which is better may no longer be as clear cut.

Wow, thank you, I had no idea that my graphic pipe, which I've never used to be honest, could drive 3840x2400 on a single display. Assuming I can make it work (and it seems relatively straightforward on the Onyx 4), would it be a fairly usable setup?

mia wrote:Wow, thank you, I had no idea that my graphic pipe, which I've never used to be honest, could drive 3840x2400 on a single display. Assuming I can make it work (and it seems relatively straightforward on the Onyx 4), would it be a fairly usable setup?

Do you have a G2 or a G2N Brick? The G2 doesn't include a processor/memory/bedrock complex, the G2N does. In either case you'll need another (compute) module that includes I/O functionality, something even the processor-containing G2N lacks. The G2 and G2N don't have PCI slots. Instead they have AGP slots for the FireGL boards. So neither have any provision for an IO9, which means no I/O controller.

To do it as SGI intended, at a minimum you'll need an Origin 350 compute module equipped with an IO9, and a NUMAlink cable.

If you're willing to fore go the as-sgi-intended path you should be able to use an Origin 300 as the base compute module.

This is cool, I never used the G2-brick, I might give it a shot after all.I just do my work with ssh+emacs really, I never needed a video output, but I'm not against the idea to try.

Question: With a T221, would this be (my system) a fairly acceptable solution or, it's really unpractical for common use? What I really do is not really graphical per nature, but I could use such screen's real estate for certain. Therefore, one could say it would be only for 2D use, with this in mind, would this be acceptable or not (flickering, unstable, whatever).

mia wrote:This is cool, I never used the G2-brick, I might give it a shot after all.

To answer your earlier question (above), the ATi graphics in the Onyx 4 should be better. The V12 is kind of at the limits of its abilities.

But is it better ? SGI never finished the job. They just sold the stuff with big promises then disappeared into the night. Business Logic, you know ? Take the money then disappear. I am soooo sick of this shit. If I were God it would be legal to shoot lying CEO's. In fact, put a bounty on them. Life would improve dramatically.

I just do my work with ssh+emacs really, I never needed a video output, but I'm not against the idea to try.

Question: With a T221, would this be (my system) a fairly acceptable solution or, it's really unpractical for common use? What I really do is not really graphical per nature, but I could use such screen's real estate for certain. Therefore, one could say it would be only for 2D use, with this in mind, would this be acceptable or not (flickering, unstable, whatever).

I can't speak for the ATi graphics - they may be better if you can get it running. In fact they should be better and since you say you are mostly interested in text the OpenGL problems may not affect you.

With the V12, it is not unstable except due to my beginner errors. You know how computers train us to not do the things that make them crash ? I'm not trained yet.

But the display is fine at 24 hz. Absolutely fine, no problems, no feeling of "uh-oh, I'm using a crappy shaky unfocused too-low-refresh crt." People need to get over this refresh rate stuff when talking about flat panels. If you concentrate on it, the mouse is not Casanova-smooth. But if you just use the computer, it's not noticeable even at 24 hz. I'm going to try later on to get up to 31 hz, that should be possible and should totally eliminate any mouse jerkiness even if I really try to find something to complain about.

One thing you're not going to get away from is a byproduct of the way the DCD works. The DCD refreshes the two screens alternately. I couldn't tell at all until I watched a movie that crossed over the center abutment. If there is motion, then you can see the dividing line of the two halves of the display. That's not the T221 halves, that's the alternating refreshing from the DCD.

After seeing it in movies, I also noticed it in text widows when I was scrolling text. Not other times. So the only time you notice this is when there is motion, you can detect an oscillation between the two halves right at the joint. As I mentioned, if this were two separate monitors (like the DCD was designed for) then you'd never be aware of the effect.

As to the real estate question, yes it sure does give you real estate. It's four 1920 x 1200 monitors in a 22" housing. But you better have some damned good eyes ! Have you used an SW 1600 ? Same feeling, very sharp but very small fonts. You can upsize the fonts but there goes the real estate gain Or you could use those drop-down binocular enlarging glasses that old guys used to wear

You might look into the 30" Eizo that uses a similar two-inputs scheme. That would also give you massive real estate plus should be easier to get running. Expensive, but if my time were worth anything this would not have been cheap either. I think the T221 is better for graphics because the pixels are so dense but you said you were mostly interested in text ...

From your description of what you want to do, I'm not sure T221 is the best solution. If you come across one at a decent price, then go for it. For graphics they are really really good. But for text, unless you have 20/10 vision, it may not make you happy. Or it might - you have to see one in real life to make your own decision. But it is a very peculiar monitor and takes some hassle to get running. I'd say this is one of those cases where the people who have them and like them, really like them. But 95% of the world couldn't stand to own the thing. But they are definitely not flaky - this monitor is smarter than my computer.

Oh. For SGI use, no need to dismiss the DG-3. 41 hz refresh is plenty, we don't have dual-link dvi anyhow, and the earlier model should be less expensive. So look for the DG-5 but don't turn up your nose at a DG-3.

Re-reading your post, if you can find a T221 to borrow it should just plug in with your setup. Whether the font size is usable for you is another question In the US they seem to go for around a thousand dollars so I am not sure I'd rush out to buy one without taking a real-world look first. Let's just say that people here are laughing at me for using a magnifying glass to do my emails ...

Dully noted, this is seriously good stuff, and I do appreciate the insight. It seems that the T221 are discontinued (well, so are the Onyx4, sadly), I'm surprised this thing never took off, maybe it was a little too ahead of its time. I'll follow your progress and if I see one for the right price, I might try to get it and use it with the G2 brick. While the fonts will be tiny, it might still be good for coding.

Kind of interesting that the primary connector which you aren't supposed to use (and it's blocked off on an Octane with DCD) is Monitor 0, while the DCD ports are Monitor 1 and Monitor 2. I guess that makes sense if you want to be consistent, but in a way if it's not to be used, then it shouldn't be inventoried ?

I do also have a few tezros along with the Onyx4, would they provide a "better" (more stable, usable, less flickery, blah) output than the G2-brick or it's really comparable for 2D work? (should I really say, non openGL work, not even movies or anything high framerate really).

My understanding is that with the G2-brick I can use 4 pipes, while with the tezro I can use only 2, what does this translates to for the final user? Higher framerate or else?

Finally, my desk is about 40-ft from the SGIs, would there be a lot of signal loss if I were to get some 40-ft dvi cables? I believe those, from not being analog by nature should be okay, but I would like to make sure.

I've never even thought about connecting anything to the G2 brick or Tezro, they just crush numbers all day long, that's what they do, and for that, they don't really need an output, but now that you got my interest, I'm thinking I could nicely display the results using such setup, and use this same display for coding.

having fun with a little linux-irix hybrid on a t221 -- 1920x2400 for each @41Hz, seems to key off the primary display inputs. boring pci-e gfx card on left (primary) via two SL-DVI cables and octane2 VPro V12 DCD 2x SL-DVI on the right. irix is using the stock 2@1920x1200_60p VFO. haven't quite figured out how to set the channel rectangle properly on the irix side so the two parts of the right screen are logically next to each other horizontally according to irix. a little xli / .backgrounds magic (in need of gamma correction) has the image laid out across both systems seamlessly, and x2x over ssh works great. seems like a good fit for my desktop needs.

Just using x2x over ssh at the moment, but I've had good luck with synergy on irix before - there's a page on here somewhere which walks you through the setup and allows you to control both the pre-login screen (which isn't working now with x2x) and obviously the logged in desktop.